Musings From the Margin

2008-10-29T22:08:00.000-07:00

Choose:hope over fear- unity over division- change over the status quo-Think how lovely it will be to have a president who can string a sentence together...and a nation. Vote for Barack Obama!

2008-10-03T19:50:00.000-07:00

Fire SaleHurry, hurry, hurry!Step right up, folks.Get your failed economic policies,Your compromised Constitution,Your yawning inequality, Crumbling infrastructure, decliningMiddle Class, and Defunct New Orleans While supplies last. Going, going, going! A culture war, cheap; Other wars at deep discount:Iraq war, complete with oversized embassy; Afghan war with revived Taliban;Pakistan war...oops,

2008-10-03T16:41:00.000-07:00

Now we can relax, knowing our money is in good hands, right?Accountability?Oh, you think the $700bn will be different? I sure hope you are right and I am wrong. I hope it helps the people it is (alleged to be) intended to help. What are you going to do when all your appeals have been for nothing? Hope's all that's left in my arsenal.

2008-10-03T15:40:00.000-07:00

Time to polish up the old tools: Hard Times Come Again No MorePastures Of PlentyHard Travelim'Brother, Can You Spare A DimeMore later.

2008-10-02T13:53:00.000-07:00

Here's details of the bailout bill, including a summary of the unbelievable number of attachments. Newscasters mentioned the 'sweeteners; intended to entice the support of resistant Republicans, but there's a lot more than that involved! After reading it, I couldn't help marveling that any legislation ever gets passed. If Mr. Smith went to Washington today, he'd suffer culture shock. How can any

2008-10-01T10:23:00.000-07:00

The Senate is considering the bailout plan today. Since 4 AM, Pacific Time, I have been trying to get through the Congressional Switchboard to leave messages for my representatives in Congress, but the number has been busy and the circuit jammed. Wow! What's that all about? I hope it means that all those against this bailout plan are flooding Washington lines. This modified plan - the

2008-09-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

Call your representative! Let them know how opposed you are to this bailout. Remind them that it's an election year. Democracy Now! had an excellent program discussing the bailout. A few snippets:ROBERT JOHNSON: [former chief economist of the Senate Banking Committee] You say, too big to fail. Well, if you’re too big to fail, you’re too big to be let loose to do whatever you want to do, because,

2008-09-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

Is it possible that some representatives actually listened to their constituients, and that's the reason the bailout bill failed? Dave Lindorff thinks it is (The Power of No) and he says to keep the pressure on them.People see clearly that this proposal is a trillion-dollar giveaway to the very people who have been hollowing out and destroying the US economy for over a decade or more by

2008-09-30T05:57:00.000-07:00

The bailout bill went to a vote Monday morning after a historic night of politicking. It was all set to pass, supposedly, when Nancy Pelosi gave what some are calling a partisan speech. (It merely sounded like truth to me.) As a consequence, 12 Republicans who'd pledged to support the bill got their feelings hurt and reneged. I can't say I'm sorry the bill failed - and it didn't seem to me that

2008-09-27T12:14:00.000-07:00

Congress is still considering a bail out plan despite having received a letter of opposition signed by 200 economists. We see three fatal pitfalls in the currently proposed plan: 1) Its fairness. The plan is a subsidy to investors at taxpayers’ expense. Investors who took risks to earn profits must also bear the losses. Not every business failure carries systemic risk. The government can

2008-09-26T15:00:00.000-07:00

What Congress needs to say to Bush is, prove to us that your very expensive bailout plan will actually accomplish something. Congress needs to tell him we citizens are tired of being left holding the bag after he's used his dirty tactics to get his way. He lied about the Iraq war and look what that brought us. Not flowers and a paid-for war, as promised. Not a democracy in Iraq that looks

2008-09-25T18:04:00.000-07:00

Dave Lindorff always has a clear eye on Bush's convoluted maneuvering. Here's his take on the bailout: Iraq All Over Again: Bush, Paulson and Bernanke are Just Crying Wolf A few tidbits:...now they’re doing it again, this time claiming that economic Armageddon faces the US and even the global economy if Congress doesn’t hand over all power over the economy to the Secretary of the Treasury in

2008-09-25T12:55:00.000-07:00

A deal on the $700bn giveaway is imminent. I can't wait to read the details. Then I'll know if we still have a chance to restore our democracy.Meanwhile, McCain has suspended his campaign, pleading urgency of action on the bailout proposal. Fun has been poked at him by late night comedians and the press. Nobody knows for sure why he's suspended his campaign, but we know it wasn't to cast a vote

2008-09-24T11:41:00.000-07:00

What if Congress gives all that money to Wall Street and we still have a depression? What guarantees do we have that this hasty solution will do what it's touted to do? I mean, the Iraqis were going to greet us with flowers and the Iraq war was going to pay for itself, remember? Somehow there's a disconnect for this Administration between the idea and the act.Why can't we just bail out the

2008-09-23T20:16:00.000-07:00

How gratifying to read that Congress, good Democrats and Republicans alike, are not being swept away by the wave of dire threats issued by Paulson and Bernanke. What's that old saying? The first time the dog bites you, it's the dog's fault; the second time, it's your fault. This dog bit us twice already - the Iraq war and the Patriot Act. It would be inexcusable to let it bite us again.So kudos

2008-09-23T09:45:00.000-07:00

Bernanke is telling Congress that a recession is likely if they don't give Paulson his blank check. Right. And what he's not telling them is that a recession is likely is they do give Paulson his blank check. Please! Let Congress use their common sense, for a change. Let them not be stampeded into another disaster.

2008-09-22T18:56:00.001-07:00

If Congress gives Paulson the bailout money the Bush Administration is trying to extort from the American people - the $700+bn - without punitive conditions attached to its use, we may as well just line up to claim our status as serfs and turn over our country to the overlords. Listen to (or read) whatDean Baker BAKER: Well, essentially, what the President has asked for is a $700 billion blank

2008-09-20T00:27:00.000-07:00

It's time to Tax the Speculators, according to Chuck Collins, in The Nation:<...> ...what happens when a whole sector of the economy has been cooked and billions of dollars have...been stashed in offshore bank accounts? How are the crooks held accountable for robbing our entire economy? Here are six actions that will fairly generate over $400 billion a year to pay for a broad-based economic

2008-09-19T11:32:00.000-07:00

Something to contemplate:Meltzer Calls Paulson Plan `Social Democracy at Its Worst' By Bob WillisSept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve historian Allan Meltzer said U.S. government efforts to cleanse financial institutions of troubled loans shouldn't be financed by taxpayers. ``I certainly don't think this is the taxpayers' problem,'' said Meltzer, a professor of political economy at Carnegie

2008-09-17T20:47:00.000-07:00

Listen to Democracy Now: Hear how the bailout of Fannie May, Freddie Mac and AIG is just more class war. Increasingly, the next president will be hamstrung by decisions of the current administration: be handed a broken system and then be blamed for not fixing the unfixable.<...>AMY GOODMAN: Michael Hudson, we’re talking government bailout, which means taxpayers stuck with the bill. Do you think

2008-09-16T17:24:00.000-07:00

Visit Count the Lies for a review of lies McCain has told.

2008-09-15T19:14:00.000-07:00

For over two years, Obama, in the face of scorn from Republicans and even some Democrats, has maintained that we should engage in talks not just with our friends but with our enemies, specifically, Iran. Now five former U.S foreign secretaries - Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright, Warren Christopher, James Baker and Henry Kissinger - are saying we should talk to Iran. Once again, Obama proves to

2008-09-12T19:20:00.000-07:00

Democrats have been handling McCain with kid gloves because he once was a prisoner of war, and because he served our country in war time. Well, friends, that was a long time ago, and the person who was John McCain then is not the person who is John McCain now. Why do I say that? The McCain we see now lies and cheats. He has no honor. He surrendered it when he jumped off the Straight Line Express

2008-09-12T14:24:00.000-07:00

Have you got a strong stomach, steel nerves, a dead conscience? Then this video may not bother you. Unquestionably, it's sick stuff. I couldn't watch it - I listened to it instead. But I wonder: on the basis of selling the lives of wolves to hunters, can Palin claim to be an expert on the economy? After all, money was involved, and she could see net profit. Does net profit make her a wizard even

2008-09-12T13:15:00.000-07:00

Blizzard of Lies The Straight Talk Express may not realize, after being immersed in Bush culture for 8 years, that lying is a form of cheating. (Don't you love that word, immersed? I especially find apt the definition: Biol. embedded in another organ. Yep. That's where you'll find Mccain/Palin: embedded in Bush's...well, you can chose which organ for yourself.)